THEY DID NOT DROP OUT OF SCHOOL!

-

“If your belief is wrong, your behaviours will be wrong. Beliefs determine ability”

They quitted their course; not their education!
 
Until now, we’ve been told that many of the contemporary great and famous men dropped out of school and they still made a huge success out of their lives. The salient ‘home’ lesson often driven to our ear drums is that we don’t really need to go to school or even do well at school to make it in life. And somehow I used to think along that line too. 

But recently, I made an astounding discovery.

You see when dealing with any issue of life, always identify the norm, the exceptional and the ideal. When you interpret the exceptional to be the norm or ideal, you will run your life on constant collision course with pain and defeat. The end of such race is always an untimely dirge. If you misconstrued the norm to also mean the ideal, you will  end up being small in life. Bill Gates, Steve Job and Mark Zuckerberg are the exceptions not the rule.

Now to the story:

That particular weekend, I stumbled on this PDF file on my laptop that chronicled the speeches of great and famous men that lived from the 18th century till date. I didn’t know I had such book. So I took time out to study their speeches.

And therein, I discovered that men like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Job that we had hitherto been told dropped out of school didn’t actually drop out; they dropped in. For instance, Mark said when he discovered that what he was being taught in Harvard does not line up with his passion, he quitted the course to focus on Facebook which was already becoming a big thing then. Steve left his course and dropped in on some classes trying to discover and nurture his passion. Bill Gates left Harvard in his penultimate year because he wanted to catch up with the PC revolution but he added that he took many online classes to acquire knowledge. 

They quitted their course; not their education! They quitted their course to pursue their dreams. They quitted their course to catch waves of golden opportunities. Motivational speakers try to imply that you don’t need education or good grades to succeed in life. But they will not add that these people were high flying, distinction students with the creativity of a genius; not ‘Let my people go’ or failures.

I do not mean having a pass or third class spells doom, but I must sincere with you that sound and quality education along the line of your creativity, dream and passion is the only thing that will give you a future and make you relevant in this 21st century.

No matter what you want to do with your life, never let your course of study or discipline interfere with your education, your giftedness or your creativity. Education should open to you a world of endless possibilities not to close the gate to your future.

Your course of study does not have to define your course of life. You can always change lane when you discover that you have grace, passion, and giftedness for your course of study. That you studied Mass Communication does not mean you must work in a media house. That you studied Medical Laboratory Science does not mean you must sentence yourself to the laboratory. Personally, I love it when someone is sincere with himself. Self-deception has only one known pathology: Regret.

- Sometimes it is okay to quit.
This ‘Never Give Up’ syndrome will trap many people in the fangs of frustration. It is okay to quit and pursue your dream. It is okay to quit and let your potentials find expression. It’s okay to go in pursuit of your voice and confidence.
I will be a compound fool if by now I’m dressed in white apron, Oops, I mean Lab Coat and nose mask looking like a complete idiot in a hospital environment. Becoming a scientist, lawyer, doctor, engineer or media personality might be someone else dream; it’s not mine! I celebrate their successes and feats but I do not become envious of them.

My dream is to curate and share ideas that will impart people, organizations and nations. My life revolves around ideas. Someone else dream might be to create amazing software and another to impart knowledge to children. These are fine too.
 We should celebrate ourselves and our dreams and our dreams should give the world rays of hope. We must refuse to be another dependent ratio, family burden or cooperate liability.

May you find beauty even in the ugliest of situations, may you find courage to pursue your high calling and most importantly, may you find dignity in the beauty of your dreams.

My Name is Taiwo Isola; I’m a Nation Builder.
I Write. I Speak. I Curate Ideas.
I’m a Personal Success in the Midst of Corporate Mediocrity

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BITTER TASTE OF LIBERTY

-
Image
David Diop, a Senegalese poet uses his poem entitled “ Africa ” to describe our independence as possessing a bitter taste after he chronicled our long-suffering experiences and plight through colonialism and post colonial era. Nigeria is the landmass composed of the remnant of many ancient empires and kingdoms. The nation was thus forged from the anvils of hegemonic tendencies, human diversity, conflict and history. Agitations for the independent state of Nigeria began in the early 50s by the likes of Azikwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello. We got that liberty quite alright. But after fifty eight years, the question we should ask ourselves is: How does its fruit taste? Barely seven years after our embryonic conception, civil war broke out ! We went to war against each other; brother against brother in a senseless and preventable orgy of violence that was born out of immaturity and nationalistic infantilism. The war consumed more than two million souls. This despite the ref...
Read more

FINDING YOUR VOICE AND CONFIDENCE

-
Let me start by saying: Your Destiny is Greatness. The day comes when every person must leave the security of the nest and pursue their destiny. However, there are people who never came out of their nests because they lacked courage. They lacked confidence. When their future was presented to them, they lacked that intestinal fortitude to embrace it and step into the totality of their destiny. They chose mediocrity. They chose a low life. They chose obscurity. They chose smallness. They chose survival mentality. They chose small goals and weak ambitions. They chose to be a tenant in the terrain of their own destiny! There is a voice in you. There is a greatness that wants to break forth in you. There is a destiny waiting for expression. That voice is within you. Let me say this: Your future is not a date on the calendar; your future is a voice inside you. Your future will come from deep beneath your surface and locating your own core of potential. But our tendency is to l...
Read more

PIUS ADESANMI: EVEN IF THE ROAD TO THE CEMETERY IS CLOSED…

-
Image
Even if the road to the cemetery is closed, We would buried our hero in the earth of Words. Uncle Pius Adesanmi, Thoughts are deep but the words are few, Humanity is paled by your gallant death, You are a deep fountain of intellect and illumination, Whose streams run through the crevices of the earth, Of which we have all worshiped and drank. For the first time in many moons , Humanity is stunned by the demise of a towering figure, The shadow of which influences our literary world, Vanguard of our fragile democracy, Shepherd of our national sanity, The mid-wife of our emancipation: Your words beautifully and humorously crafted, Nurtured the fading silhouette of our dreams, And we long to dance to the beats of your creativity. But suddenly the beats stopped… The water spilled and the gourd split! And what manner of life is this? Even if the road to the cemetery is closed, We would buried our hero in the earth of Words. Uncle...
Read more